Monday, January 9, 2012

No-Brother-Left-Behind

One of the gifts that Oliver got from my in-laws for Christmas is a book of preschool worksheets. While trying to get dinner on the other day, I pulled it out to distract him. His little toddler hands were quickly at work, tracing and coloring. I was impressed with him – I didn’t even know he could grasp the concept of tracing yet – and so was Gabe, who remarked, “Ollie is actually pretty good at tracing.” This is high praise from Gabe, who tells Oliver on a regular basis that his coloring isn’t good enough because he leaves “too many white spots”. Gabe got a Sharpie out and set to work grading Oliver’s work. Oliver enjoyed the attention and praise, as he always does when it eeks out of his older brothers.

As Gabe taught Oliver a few pointers, Colin came in. Assessing the learning situation at hand, he grabbed a blank piece of paper and created a pop quiz for Gabe. Without questioning Colin’s authority, Gabe earnestly set to work and was rewarded with his own Sharpie-d grade.

Straight-A students, even when graded by the 8 and under crowd. Aren’t you impressed?

2 comments:

I love it! Rae loves to assign work to the boys and grade it. And when Roy does math with her she always wants him to grade it and give her a percentage grade. Next thing you know you'll be starting the 100 reading lessons with Ollie!!